Constantine is walled, the extant medieval wall having been largely
constructed out of Roman material. Through the centre from north to
south runs a street (the rue de France) roughly dividing Constantine
into two parts. The place du Palais, in which are the palace of the
governor and the cathedral, and the kasbah (citadel) are west of the rue
de France, as is likewise the place Negrier, containing the law courts.
The native town lies chiefly in the south-east part of the city. A
striking contrast exists between the Moorish quarter, with its tortuous
lanes and Oriental architecture, and the modern quarter, with its
rectangular streets and wide open squares, frequently bordered with
trees and adorned with fountains. Of the squares the place de Nemours is
the centre of the commercial and social life of the city. Of the public
buildings those dating from before the French occupation possess chief
interest. The palace, built by Ahmed Pasha, the last bey of Constantine,
between 1830 and 1836, is one of the finest specimens of Moorish
architecture of the 19th century. The kasbah, which occupies the
northern corner of the city, dates from Roman times, and preserves in
its more modern portions numerous remains of other Roman edifices. It is
now turned into barracks and a hospital. The fine mosque of
Sidi-el-Kattani (or Salah Bey) dates from the close of the 18th century;
that of Suk-er-Rezel, now transformed into a cathedral, and called
_Notre-Dame des Sept Douleurs_, was built about a century earlier. The
Great Mosque, or Jamaa-el-Kebir, occupies the site of what was probably
an ancient pantheon. The mosque Sidi-el-Akhdar has a beautiful minaret
nearly 80 ft. high. The museum, housed in the hotel de ville, contains a
fine collection of antiquities, including a famous bronze statuette of
the winged figure of Victory, 23 in. high, discovered in the kasbah in
1858.
A religious seminary, or medressa, is maintained in connexion with the
Sidi-el-Kattani; and the French support a college and various minor
educational establishments for both Arabic and European culture. The
native industry of Constantine is chiefly confined to leather goods and
woollen fabrics. Some 100,000 burnouses are made annually, the finest
partly of wool and partly of silk. There is also an active trade in
embossing or engraving copper and brass utensils. A considerable trade
is carried on over a large area by means of railway connexion with
Algiers, Bona, Tunis and Biskra, as well as with Philippeville. The
railways, however, have taken away from the city its monopoly of the
traffic in wheat, though its share in that trade still amounts to from
L400,000 to L480,000 a year.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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